


i won't leave you this time, this time

by francisforever



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Eldritch Lyfrassir Edda, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Lyfrassir Edda, M/M, Marius von Raum has ADHD, Nonbinary Lyfrassir Edda, Post-The Bifrost Incident, and handles it by running across the stars to find his partner, anyways this thing is written entirely based on my marius kin mems so you know its gonna be great /j, he does, hough how am i supposed to tag this bitch, less violence than is canon-typical, make that tag show up people, marius is one whole Yearning Bitch, or well partner to be but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29890410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/francisforever/pseuds/francisforever
Summary: this is literally another "marius goes off to find lyf after the bifrost incident and drags him back to join the mechs" fic. i have nothing to say in my defense because i love that concept. just give it a chance <3
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina, theyre barely there but its Important To Me
Comments: 9
Kudos: 32





	i won't leave you this time, this time

**Author's Note:**

> what it says on the tin! i wrote this based entirely on my gay little kinnie memories. please enjoy! the reunion is kinda gay
> 
> title from ragnarok v because uhhh Yeah

Darkness, impossibly shining all around. The only thing brighter than it was the rainbow hues of the Bifrost, burned into Marius' mind from when it had consumed the Yggdrasil system. He stood there, floating in space, unable to move towards what lay ahead of him, twisting and undulating.

He could see a figure in the center, a beautiful shape being swallowed up by the thrumming heartbeat of the Bifrost. Lyfrassir Edda. They reached out towards him, and he tried to run forward to them, but could not move. Distantly, he could hear them pleading for help, and he knew it was his name that they called. Still, he could not move. 

The impossibly cold rainbow darkness seeped through his bones, tearing him apart bit by bit. He tried to scream, to call, to reach out for Lyf, because if he could just reach them it would be okay, but his voice was silenced. There was nothing he could do, all hope was lost. All he could do was mouth his tearful apology, and hope Lyf would understand how deeply he meant it.

He awoke screaming.

* * *

Marius lay face down on the kitchen table, head nestled safely, comfortably in his arms. The others had long since finished their breakfasts and fucked off to do their own things, leaving Marius alone with his untouched plate. The exhaustion and fear that constantly lurked at the edges of his mind crept forwards, making him squeeze his eyes shut tighter in a desperate attempt to push the thoughts away.

It was the thunking of an object on the table in front of him that finally broke his train of thought and made him look up. Nastya stood there, a black box in front of him. More interesting, it was identical to that of the Ragnarok Express. "Aurora says she's tired of watching you mope around all the time and listening to your night terrors. She also said you'll know what to do with this and if you don't she'll be disappointed as hell but to ask Ivy."

He looked in shock between her and the box, not even thinking to ask where their ship had gotten it. Hesitantly, he reached out for it and picked it up with his fake arm. It thrummed when he touched it, a rainbow sheen like an oil spill rippling across the surface of both the box and his hand. Nastya raised a single eyebrow but made no comment, simply turning and walking back off to gods knows where.

With shaking fingers, he tuned the box to what should be the correct frequency and set it down, the projector lighting up and casting its recording on the wall of the empty kitchen. There, seated at their desk in the recording, was Lyfrassir. They looked exhausted, but the light of fear and stress was easy to see in their eyes.

_"It's only a matter of time... They were right... Hoddmimis mining colony... Inspector 2nd Class, Lyfrassir Edda, signing off."_

The words faded in and out of Marius' brain. They made it out. They must have, the date on the timestamp in the corner of the video seemed to be enough time for them to have gotten out and away. There was hope. He stood, grabbing the black box, and ran to begin his preparations.

There was hope.

* * *

It was quiet when Marius went to the hanger where they kept commandeered ships for voyages just like this. He hadn't expected any grand sendoff, but the quiet still felt lonely. Regardless, he went about prepping his small ship of choice. It was a bit dinged up, but he'd flown it before and was fond of its quirks and foibles. Plus, he'd managed to tweak the comms so those on the Aurora couldn't call him unless he called them first. 

He went through, flipping the necessary switches and watching as they did their work. Engines warming up for the launch, nav systems booting, coords input for the Hoddmimis colony, default check through the support systems to make sure everything was safe. It was routine for him and every other member of the crew--Brian may have been the official pilot, but all of them knew how to run a ship when it was needed. Except maybe the Toy Soldier. Who knew what it did and didn't know how to do.

Gently, he rested his hand against the wall of the Aurora, feeling her thrum in response. "Thank you." Then he strapped himself into the pilot seat of his little spacecraft and opened the comm link to the bridge. "Brian, open the hangar doors. I'm ready to go."

There was the crackle of static of the comms and then Brian's voice. "Alright. Be safe, if you aren't back within the decade I'm sending Jonny after you. That's a threat." In the background, there was a muffled complaint, before a different voice came through.

"I still think this is a damn fool quest. So if shit goes to fuck don't say I didn't tell you so." Marius laughed a little. He knew Jonny's version of a 'be safe' message at this point. 

"I'll keep that in mind. Heading out now." And with that, he closed the comms and kicked the engines into gear, carefully flying the small craft out of the hanger and then off and into the vast emptiness of space.

* * *

Space was lonely. Marius knew that already, but the loneliness from aboard the Aurora had carried with him and stacked onto the space loneliness. And this time, there weren't any crewmates to annoy with it. Idly, he spun around and around in the pilot's chair. 

He still didn't know what he would say when he found Lyf. If he found Lyf, he reminded himself. He didn't want to think about the possibility of failure. The possibility that it could all be a dead end. Or worse, maybe the man he sought had already succumbed to the swirling chaos of Yog'sothoth. Would it have followed them? Was there even a Lyfrassir Edda to find anymore?

He shook himself. "None of that, Marius. Can't give up before you even get there." Still, the possibilities loomed endlessly before him, as vast and hopeless and lonely as the space he travelled through. 

* * *

The outpost he stopped at to rest and refuel was a small, out of the way colony orbiting the moon of some gas giant Marius had never heard of. There was very little there, just the living quarters of the inhabitants, the work, and a small tavern. It was there that Marius found himself, downing a glass of whiskey as he sat by the bar.

"So what brings you to us?" the bartender, a round and kindly looking middle aged gentleman, asked as he set his glass back down on the counter. Marius couldn't remember his name. Or if he'd asked it, for that matter. He wasn't drunk yet, just forgetful.

"Heading out towards Hoddmimis."

The confusion on the faces of both the bartender and those patrons not-so-subtley eavesdropping was clear. "Why would you- what business is there for you out on Hoddmimis? You don't seem like the type to sign on as a miner, you're all..." He gave a vague gesture at Marius and his outfit. He made a fair point, it was a fairly twinkish outfit.

"Looking for someone. It was their last known location. We think they must've made it out of Yggdrasil, and... I want to find them again." 

The man's eyes widened. "Yggdrasil? You were there? What was it like?" The other patrons began to gather, and Marius let out a dry chuckle.

"Up until its final days. We left before the very end. Still, let me tell you it properly..." With a flourish, he produced a violin. " _Like whiskey laced with gasoline..._ "

* * *

It was a few more hours before Marius retired to the chambers he had rented for the night. The songs he had played and sung had sprung, as always, fully formed into his mind and out of his mouth. But the ballad he had ended on... That one was new. A song filled with all the ache and longing of his search for Lyfrassir. 

He groaned and finished shedding his layers, flopping onto the bed. It was by no means comfortable, but anything was better than sleeping on his little ship. He had barely closed his eyes before sleep overtook him, and with it the same dream.

Lyf's hands, reaching out to him as the silver haired man fell deeper and deeper into the swirling rainbow hellscape of the Bifrost. Of Yog'sothoth itself. Marius opened his mouth, trying to scream, but no sound fell from his lips as he reached out, desperately, futilely trying to reach Lyf, to pull them out of the nightmare and into his arms.

He awoke with a start, metal arm aching where it was attached into his flesh. Tiredly, he rubbed at the intersection, trying to work out the pain. It was easy to tell there would be no getting back to sleep after that, so he slid out of bed and began to redress himself. It was time to leave, and he quietly made his way out and towards his ship, the early morning light reflecting off the hull.

He hadn't expected people to gather behind him as he walked, cheers and wishes of good luck on his quest following him. It brought a smile to his face, shaking some of the hold the nightmare had over him. He could do it. He could find Lyfrassir. He had to.

* * *

Hoddmimis was a worn down planet, full of worn down people. When Marius landed, he almost didn't know where to turn or how to start his search in earnest. The people flooding through the streets after a long day's labor didn't even look up to meet his gaze, and the officials he saw lurking radiated an air of danger. Still, he made his way to an inn and began to ask.

The things he learned in whispers chilled his blood until he was almost certain he knew what Nastya's mercury felt like in her veins. How no one who landed here left again, the strict rules governing the daily lives of the haggard populace, and the whispers of revolution. There was a man who fit Marius' description, silver haired with a slim build. They had eyes like rainbows, the whispers said. They had been vital in orchestrating the rebellion this far, but they had been recently captured, they said. They were being kept in the high security prison close to the center of the colony, they said.

When he heard that, Marius spun on his heel and left the inn. So it was to be a jailbreak, then. He could do that. He was good at those. Step one of doing that on an unfamiliar planet was to find out where he was going. So it was with a great amount of care that he approached one of the officials he saw. He took a deep breath, putting on his best well-meaning, bumbling tourist attitude. "Hello Officer!"

He was met with a disdainful grunt and a look of contempt. Never one to back down from a challenge though, he kept his chin up. "Was coming through this area looking for a friend of mine and I think I got rather terribly lost. I'm new to the area, see, and I was hoping to surprise them with a visit. They work at that prison near the center. Would you happen to know where I should go?"

The officer stared at him for a long moment, until Marius began to feel like maybe he had horribly fucked up, before the man shrugged and pointed in a direction. "That way until you reach the courthouse. Should be able to find your way from there. Don't be out past curfew, mind you."

Marius nodded, thanked his lucky stars, and was off at a pace he could only hope wasn't suspicious.

* * *

The trek to the prison was longer than he had expected, and by the time Marius stood in front of the looming building, the streets were almost empty. Guess he could add a curfew violation to the list of crimes he was about to commit. He took one long deep breath in, and let it out, steadying himself as he pulled his monogoggle over his eye, walked inside, and drew two of his pistols. "Lyfrassir Edda. Where are they?"

Chaos instantaneously ensued. The hail of gunfire that rained upon him was painful, but not the worst he'd endured. He kept marching forward, even as the wounds healed themselves, ejecting the bullets as they went. Shot by shot, he took out the guards and officers, until the room fell silent. He coughed, spitting out blood onto the floor. He kept moving.

Down the hall, towards where the cells were. Shot after shot, body after body. He finally found the keycard on a guard who had been lounging on a chair in a room off the main hall. He hadn't had a chance to react before Marius had taken him out. The card opened up the huge metal doors, and the gunfire that immediately peppered his body tore hole after hole in him, but he kept moving. Shot after shot, deeper and deeper he went. 

What felt like both seconds and hours passed, but he finally stopped in front of a barren cell, empty save for the most minimum furnishings and a man with cropped silver hair and shimmering rainbow eyes. Lyfrassir Edda stared as Marius slapped the keycard against the scanner, blood-covered hands shaking, and fell to his knees in front of the now-open door as the pain finally overwhelmed him.

"Von Raum?" The shock was apparent in their voice, yet underneath Marius could have sworn there was an undercurrent of hope. They took a hesitant step forward, then almost ran to where Marius knelt, holding onto the worst of his wounds. And when they caressed his face, tilting it up to search his eyes, Marius could have cried from relief. "Is it really you?"

Marius nodded, afraid to speak with the blood building in his mouth. The wheezing cough moments later saved him the trouble of trying to hide it though, and blood spattered onto his chest and down onto Lyf's boots. Their eyes widened, a look of worry in them that would have surprised a Marius who wasn't bleeding out. "Fuck, _Marius_ , what the fuck did you do?"

Instead of answering, Marius tilted his head towards the end of the hall, where more soldiers were rounding the corner. Lyf cursed in some other tongue and, in one swift motion, scooped him up bridal-style in their arms. Marius made a sound somewhere between a surprised squeak and a sound of pain, drawing a muttered apology from the other's lips. They stood there, stance firm as the soldiers drew their weapons.

**"Stop."**

And just like that, the whole world seemed to freeze except for Lyfrassir and the wounded violinist in their arms. Marius looked up at them, confusion seeping into the mingled pain and exhaustion. Iridescent tears rolled down their face, though for what reason seemed beyond him. They walked forward, through the prison and out, silent as they cried. Only once did they glance down at Marius, an indecipherable look on their face.

Marius gave a few directions towards where he had landed his ship, before slipping into a blood loss induced haze as his body tried desperately to heal his many wounds. His last semi-coherent thought before he let himself into the darkness was how pretty the rainbow sheen to the air was.

* * *

When Marius awoke it was with a long groan of pain before he even opened his eyes. Everything hurt. He must not have died then, or he'd have regenerated fully before he regained consciousness. He took stock of his body--he had all the parts and at this point even seemed to be mostly intact.

"You're awake. Good. I would have been rather peeved if you died on me after all that." 

Marius cracked an eye open and looked to the source of the voice. Lyfrassir leaned against the wall of his ship, looking rather exhausted themself. Now that he wasn't bleeding out, he was able to take better stock of their appearance. Gone was the uniform and intricately braided hair; now, they wore a simple black turtleneck and long leather jacket, their hair now cut short. Marius decided then and there that somehow they looked even hotter than before. All they needed were some well placed belts to be perfect.

"I've set the coordinates for your main ship--the Aurora?" They seemed to play with the word in their mouth, figuring out the way it rolled off their tongue. "I decided not to make contact until after you awoke however, as I have no faith that the rest of your crew won't break what remains of my sanity."

Marius chucked a little, sitting up. The blankets covering his torso fell away, revealing that Lyfrassir had done what seemed to be a very careful, talented bandaging of his now mostly-healed wounds. He blinked, and flushed ever so slightly at the clear tender care that had been put into the wraps. "Did you...?"

Lyfrassir's cheeks also dusted with pink and they looked away from Marius. "You were losing a lot of blood. I didn't want to make your rescue effort pointless by having you die on me." _Don't read too much into this_ , unspoken but clearly there. Marius decided he would read as much into it as he wanted.

With arms that only barely shook, he pushed himself up and to his feet, walking unsteadily towards the control panel. Lyf was at his side in an instant, wrapping their arm around him to help stabilize him. "Fuck, warn me next time you want to get up, von Raum." It was almost tender, and Marius grinned up at him.

A few more steps and he could lean against the dash, pressing the buttons that would pull up comms with the Aurora. After only a few rings, the call went through. "What's up fuckers, I got them!"

There was silence for only a moment before the other end of the line erupted into loud whoops and cheers.

* * *

The journey home seemed much less long now that Marius had someone to share it with. There was so much to be said and explained and shared with Lyf, not least of which being why the prison trio hadn't taken them with them. Apparently it had been something that they had been wondering for a while, given the apparently obvious attachment that Marius had to them. 

When Marius had explained that Raphaella had literally had to use unethical science to force him to stay dead long enough to get away, since Ivy's analysis of the chances of escape otherwise had been so slim, it seemed to put some pieces together for Lyf. They'd stared at him with a mixture of shock and concern. Still, he couldn't say the tight, warm embrace they'd pulled him into hadn't been nice.

In turn they relayed to him the details of their time on Hoddmimis. By the time they'd gotten there, the colony's government had turned indentured servitude into what was practically slavery. There was little to be had in terms of new labor, so they'd simply made leaving legally almost impossible. Until Lyfrassir had arrived, things had seemed nigh hopeless to those suffering.

It had been enough to quickly turn them against government in general, as it wasn't that terribly difficult to begin to see parallels with the system they themself had served, as in fact Hoddmimis had fist been colonized by those from Yggdrasil. And that insider knowledge, along with the Bifrost they had learned still lived within them and had actually immortalized them, was what had helped Lyf pull together a remarkably successful revolution.

When Marius questioned why Lyf hadn't then used the Bifrost to escape the prison sooner, they had simply shrugged and said that it was a learning curve, and that their capture had served to make them somewhat of an inspiring unkillable martyr for the cause. They had no fear that, after the dramatic escape they had made with him, the revolution would continue to grow and thrive. Marius had grinned at that and, in a moment of boldness, intertwined his fingers with theirs. They had glanced down at it, and squeezed his hand tight with a shy smile.

* * *

When their ship finally landed in the waiting hangar of the Aurora, the other eight Mechanisms were all there waiting. Marius grinned; he may not have had a sendoff, but the welcoming clamor of his crewmates more than made up for it. Lyf looked nervous as they stood next to him, glancing at the others. Still, they gave him a brave smile and seemed to even relax a little when he took their hand to pull them down and out of the smaller ship and onto the Aurora.

They watched him as he embraced, attacked, and laughed his way through the rough and tumble greetings. It was a chaotic yet home-like scene, and they let a smile grace their face. It was then they finally made their decision: they could be happy here, amongst this absurd group of immortal pirates. Perhaps, even, they could be at home.

"Everyone, this is Lyfrassir Edda!"

**Author's Note:**

> come bother me about this on tumblr if youd like! @ragnarokv


End file.
